A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl

A Girl Within A Girl Within A Girl by Nanda Reddy

Listen to an excerpt of the audiobook

Buy Now

Available in Bookstores Everywhere

Coming March 4, 2025

A girl takes on a series of identities to survive, shrouding herself in layer upon layer of secrets, until one morning years later when she is forced to reckon with her past.

On an ordinary day in an upscale suburb of Atlanta, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny? 

Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana—a time when Sunny was her only name. Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build. 

As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the harrowing details of her past—her journey to America on the “backtrack,” the shock of being delivered into the hands of an abusive family while being severed from her own, and her many evolutions of self as she struggles to find a path forward against all odds.

But the letter contains urgent news which cannot be ignored. She has no choice but to confess her story of illegal immigration, abuse, addiction, and identity transformation to her unsuspecting husband, no matter the consequences.

Steeped in sensory detail, this striking debut transports the reader from the sugar cane fields of Guyana to the world of immigrant laborers in Miami to the affluent suburbs of Atlanta. Nanda Reddy takes us on a wrenching journey of assimilation, survival, and reinvention that explores the very construct of identity—all the while underscoring the strength of chosen family, love, and the resilience of the human spirit

Buy Audiobook

Coming March 4, 2025

A girl takes on a series of identities to survive, shrouding herself in layer upon layer of secrets, until one morning years later when she is forced to reckon with her past.

On an ordinary day in an upscale suburb of Atlanta, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny? 

Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana—a time when Sunny was her only name. Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build. 

As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the harrowing details of her past—her journey to America on the “backtrack,” the shock of being delivered into the hands of an abusive family while being severed from her own, and her many evolutions of self as she struggles to find a path forward against all odds.

But the letter contains urgent news which cannot be ignored. She has no choice but to confess her story of illegal immigration, abuse, addiction, and identity transformation to her unsuspecting husband, no matter the consequences.

Steeped in sensory detail, this striking debut transports the reader from the sugar cane fields of Guyana to the world of immigrant laborers in Miami to the affluent suburbs of Atlanta. Nanda Reddy takes us on a wrenching journey of assimilation, survival, and reinvention that explores the very construct of identity—all the while underscoring the strength of chosen family, love, and the resilience of the human spirit

Zibby's Bookshop

in Santa Monica, California

1113 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403

Coming soon ... please visit our Events page for Upcoming Events.

What people are saying...

"An urgent and necessary novel. Set in the 1980s, Reddy’s story of a young trafficking victim could just as easily have taken place today. As bighearted as it is heartbreaking, A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl does not dwell in darkness. This is a story rich in empathy, riveting, and redemptive."

Leyna Krow

author of Fire Season

"Reddy’s tremendous and devastating debut broke my heart repeatedly. I ached alongside its heroine and yearned for her to find the happiness and safety she deserved. Suffused with the tenderness of love between sisters, of chosen families, of partnership and parenthood, this artfully constructed story delivers suspense, terror, thrilling self-salvation and life-transforming moments of human kindness and compassion. This novel is about all the various selves we might try to shed and leave behind, and how we must stitch ourselves whole, humble and powerful again. I can’t remember the last time I was impacted so emotionally by a novel."

Angela Mi Young Hur

author of Folklorn